America's "Arrogant Ignorance"

The following appeared in the November 19th edition of the Arizona Republic. I completely agree with Dr. Michael Crow's assessment of the situation in the United States. Dr. Crow mentioned the idea of Americans resting on their laurels; in my opinion, not only is this true, but the problem is exacerbated by many Americans' believing in "American exceptionalism." I can tell you that not only do other people around the world not believe in the idea of how "exceptional" the United States is, but that they are working as hard as possible to be better than Americans in all sorts of fields: education, commerce, industry, and so forth. Too many Americans would rather be fat, stupid and lazy, then complain about why the rest of the world is passing them by and taking "their" jobs. Dr. Crow's message should be a wake-up call to Americans that they need to rethink how American society should operate before the so-called "American exceptionalism" turns permanently into "American mediocrity." The United States is already on its way there.

More than 200 people at a Peoria conference got a jolt of reality along with their caffeine from Arizona State University President Michael Crow, who said a collective "arrogant ignorance" holds the nation back.

He cited an education system that's not innovative enough, a lack of awareness or acknowledgment of global competition and lack of long-term vision.

Crow, the morning keynote speaker Thursday at the city's second annual Positive Action through Civic Engagement conference didn't mince words in his hourlong address, taking on what he called the "800-pound elephant sitting in the room."

The state of the economy.

Crow said the country needs to work toward a common goal of economic success and global competitiveness, which would help achieve other goals of social, cultural and community development.

He outlined "realistic assessments" of the United States, often forcefully, thumping the lectern on stage at the Arizona Broadway Theatre.

The ASU president said the country is resting on its laurels, which is not enough to come out of the economic morass.

"We don't understand the rise and the development of the rest of the world as competitors; we feel it but we don't understand it," he said. "We are going to have to look ourselves in the mirror, pull ourselves together as a community and literally re-think many, many things."

Crow said looking to the federal government for all the answers is not the solution. He urged the audience, comprising business, education and community leaders, to understand that the solutions to problems come from communities.

"Communities and states are the laboratories of democracy," he said. "We are the means by which solutions will be derived, new pathways will be engineered."

Crow also criticized the K-12 and higher-education systems for being "insufficiently innovative," and stifled by the "model of the past."

He said the focus should be on how K-12 schools are doing, "not compared with the school down the street or the school up in Flagstaff," but with schools internationally.

"We're not where we should be," Crow said.

He took on his peers, other research university presidents, for thinking narrowly only of the elite students and educators. They must be more inclusive to better educate the country.

"The level of arrogance among these individuals and these institutions is beyond belief," Crow said.

He spoke of the need to think big, not in the narrow prism of growth within a city or company but regionally, to compete not with Tempe or Tucson but with Singapore or Shanghai.

For that, he singled out the need to think about growth in the context of the larger Sun Corridor in Arizona, one of 10 megapolitans identified as hubs for growth because of their collective infrastructure and resources. The corridor stretching from Prescott to Tucson, across Yavapai, Maricopa, Pinal and Pima counties, has a collective economy the size of Finland, Malaysia or the United Arab Emirates, he said.

To compete globally, leaders would have to take the long-term view and make decisions regionally.

Crow said it doesn't help to just focus on dealing with people who no longer have jobs and how to keep them going in the short-term with unemployment benefits. Leaders must focus on how the unemployed are being prepared for the jobs that need filled going forward.

"By being economically competitive, we can build from that the societies we want," Crow said.

The speech impressed several audience members.

AARP Arizona volunteer Virginia Correa Creager told Crow she would work to spread the word. "It's incumbent on us not to just listen to you today, not to just take notes from you today but it's incumbent upon us to reach out into the community and spread the message that you gave us today," she said.

The message of working collectively for the larger cause of economic prosperity hit home for Sandy Mendez Benson of Washington Elementary School District. She said that's something she works on at the local level, "trying to pool resources and ideas" between schools and the local businesses and community residents.

Bounce!

I was amused at this photo taken by the Arizona Republic. The photo shows Arizona State University softball players Renee Welty, left, and Kaitlin Cochran, celebrating their win over Northwestern University on May 24th. (The entire slideshow of pictures can be found here.) Yes, I do feel a twinge of professional jealousy, wanting to have taken such a lucky shot! :)

What a freakin' crybaby!

Can't beat your in-state rival? Lose recruits to your in-state rival? Do you suck it up and try harder? No. You call your in-state rival names. Yeah, that'll solve your problems, coach! Pussy! :) From the Arizona Republic:

The smoldering Arizona-Arizona State football rivalry grew hotter on Wednesday when Wildcats coach Mike Stoops said ASU has "turned into a J.C."

Speaking at a football signing day news conference in Tucson, Stoops said some recruits had told him that it was easier to earn acceptance at ASU.

"Each school has to recruit to that school and what type of academic requirements there are," Stoops said. "Obviously, Arizona State has turned into a J.C. and we are a four-year college. According to all the players, they say it is easier to go to school there, easier to get in. I thought we had the same requirements. It is news to me."

It was also news to ASU coach Dennis Erickson, who had little to say about Stoops' remarks.

"He can say what he wants," Erickson said. "We're all the same. There is no difference.

"The bottom line with recruiting, and all that talking back and forth and all the stuff, is who's going to win games and who isn't right now," said Erickson, who defeated Stoops and Arizona 20-17 on Dec. 1 in Tempe. "What we've done with our group academically, as far as helping our guys be successful, that's what it's all about.

...

Tensions between the football programs, located 90 miles apart, grew last month when highly touted tailback Ryan Bass of Corona, Calif., backed out of an oral commitment to Arizona and said he would attend ASU. Bass was among the 27 signees announced by the Sun Devils on Wednesday.

Arizona signed only two players from the state - seven fewer than Arizona State. The disparity could be a byproduct of ASU's three-game win streak in the Territorial Cup series. Stoops is 1-3 against Arizona State.

ASU Triumphant (Yet Again)

My university, Arizona State, has won the Territorial Cup for the third straight year over my other university, the University of Arizona. (I attended the U of A for two years, but got my two degrees from ASU; I consider myself a Sun Devil.) What was great was that the game was shown live here in S'pore, and I caught all but the first eight minutes or so of the first quarter, when ESPN switched coverage to the game. Amazing, huh? This was the first game I've caught on TV of the Sun Devils since I left the US in 2001.

Anyway, a very good season has concluded (overall: 10-2; Pac-10: 7-2), and now it's on to a bowl game (the Fiesta Bowl, insha'allah). (The above photo is of ASU's junior running back Keegan Herring, after scoring a touchdown; credit: The Arizona Republic.)

Update: Twelth-ranked ASU (11th-ranked in the BCS) will be playing #17 Texas in the Holiday Bowl on December 27th. This will be ASU's third Holiday Bowl appearance (where they're 0-2), and their first game ever against Texas. It should be an interesting game. BTW, speaking of rivalries, my high school's football team beat our cross-town rivals, EFA, 41-13, for the third time in four years. Good job, Green Hornets!

Corps Drums Up Funds for Summer Tour

A rare article in the paper about drum corps; this one from the May 27th Arizona Republic on The Academy having a fund raiser for their 2007 tour.

One small part of the article that appears incorrect: "Arizona's only drum corps..." Looking at Jester's website, I don't see any sign that they're not marching this summer.

TEMPE - Arizona's only drum corps will debut their 2007 show at the fifth annual Memorial Day Concert in Tempe.

The Academy Drum and Bugle Corps consists of 135 young people ages 14 to 22. It is part of the Tempe-based Arizona Academy of the Performing arts, which was founded in 2001 to seek out more education and performance opportunities for young musicians.

Monday's concert will take place at 4 p.m. at Tempe's PERA Club, located at 1 East Continental Drive near McDowell and Scottsdale roads. Tickets are $5 in advance or $8 at the gate. The event includes food and a silent auction.

Proceeds from the event will help the corps pay for a summer tour. They will spend the summer traveling around the country performing their newest show, an 11-minute choreographed production.

Corps members must audition and pay $1,800 a year to participate. During the school year they spent their weekend days practicing at outdoor sports fields in Tempe, and during the summer they will practice 12-14 hours nearly every day.

The undefeated corps was the 2006 Division II World Champion at the Drum Corps International World Championships in Madison, Wis..

For more information, visit www.arizonaacademy.org.

And the winner is...

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about the five designs that were put to a vote for the Arizona state quarter. The results of that vote have been tabulated and the winning design is the Grand Canyon / Saguaro combination (see right). This was my second choice of the five. From the Arizona Republic:

The design for the Arizona quarter, chosen by Gov. Janet Napolitano from among five finalists, includes a "Grand Canyon State" banner across the middle of the quarter, separating the canyon view with multi-rayed sun above and a stately saguaro in a desert landscape below.

...

The Arizona quarter, 48th in the state-by-state series, will be released in 2008, followed by Alaska and Hawaii.

Saguaros are an iconic image of southern Arizona deserts in particular and the Southwest in general, while the Grand Canyon, a chasm carved thousands of feet into the Colorado Plateau by the Colorado River, is an international tourist attraction that first obtained federal protection in 1893 before becoming a national park in 1919.

The banner's placement across the middle of the combination design reflects the state quarter commission's request that the U.S. Mint, which produced the design, make it clear that saguaros do not grow at the Grand Canyon.

The canyon is located in northern Arizona at elevations where evergreen trees line the canyon's rim at some points.

"The (Mint) artist did a pretty good job by using that banner," said Tom Trompeter, a coin collector who served on the state's quarter commission. "It looks like two separate ideas."

Matthew Rounis, a fifth-grader who also served on the commission, said the combo design "represents the entire state, not just one section, and it also serves as a map of Arizona, since in the northern part you have the Grand Canyon and in the southern part you have the saguaro which is indigenous to those areas."

One of the other four finalist designs showed a version of the Grand Canyon scene by itself while a second consisted of the Saguaro desert landscape. The third showed 19th Century explorer John Wesley Powell in a boat on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, and the fourth was of Navajo codetalkers - U.S. Marines who used their native language to thwart Japanese eavesdroppers during World War II.

The combination design was the overwhelming favorite on 112,830 entries submitted to an online poll conducted by Napolitano's office. The combo received twice as many first-place rankings than did either the Grand Canyon or saguaro designs, with the other two designs trailing.

Ranking the Arizona State Quarter Designs

The Arizona Republic has an article today on the Arizona state quarter that's scheduled to be minted next year. The website for Governor Janet Napolitano has an online poll that allows the public to rank the five contending quarter designs. The Republic article is somewhat snarky toward the various designs, which I've included in this post.


"Grand Canyon"

The good: The Grand Canyon is Arizona's biggest tourist attraction, with 5 million visitors each year.

The bad: It's not all sunsets and fun. A National Park Service Web site warns: "Every year, scores of unprepared hikers, lured by initially easy downhill hiking, experience severe illness, injury, or death from hiking in the canyon."

The ugly: Arizona already is known as the Grand Canyon State, and the motto is carried on license plates and three of the five new quarter designs. Can you say "overexposed"?


"Grand Canyon and Saguaro"

The good: Beautifully captures two of Arizona's most iconic images.

The bad: Design is a tad busy with a saguaro, the Canyon AND an image of the sun rising (setting?) over the rim.

The ugly: Uhh, since when do saguaros grow along the Grand Canyon? I know, I know, the little "Grand Canyon State" banner on the design separates the two images. Just keep telling yourself that . . .


"Desert Scene"

The good: Feels like something out of a 1950s Western, with a saguaro stretching skyward and the sun peeking over mountains in the background.

The bad: A hot, dusty image. So thirsty. Must . . . have . . . water . . .

The ugly: Some have sarcastically suggested the image would be a more accurate representation if it depicted a bulldozer knocking over one of the saguaros, clearing the way for another house.


"Explorer"

The good: Design memorializes John Wesley Powell, the namesake for Lake Powell who in 1869 led an expedition down the Colorado River that included the first known passage of the Grand Canyon.

The bad: That August, thinking they surely would die if they continued down the Grand Canyon, three members of Powell's crew abandoned the expedition. They were promptly killed by members of a local tribe.

The ugly: Before his adventuring, Powell lost an arm in the Civil War. The quarter design depicts him so.


"Code Talkers"

The good: Honors Arizona's Navajo code talkers, who used their language to create a secret, uncrackable code that was critical in defeating the Japanese in WWII.

The bad: Design has come under fire from critics who say it fails to honor other Native American code talkers, including the Hopis.

The ugly: At least the coin design is a more fitting tribute than the abysmal 2002 film Windtalkers.

My rankings (in the order discussed above): 1, 2, 3, 5, 4.

The More Things Change... Hermann Goering

"Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don't want war neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."
-- Hermann Goering
(1893-1946) Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe, President of the Reichstag, Prime Minister of Prussia and, as Hitler's designated successor, the second man in the Third Reich. April 18, 1946

Source: Nuremberg Diary (Farrar, Straus & Co 1947), by Gustave Gilbert (an Allied appointed psychologist), who visited daily with Goering and his cronies in their cells, afterwards making notes and ultimately writing the book about these conversations. (Source)

Muslim Veil Also Can Be Free Choice

The following letter to the editor appeared in the Arizona Republic (Phoenix) yesterday (Nov. 6), written by Sister Nicole Hadley of Mesa. It's pretty good and she makes an interesting analogy at the end: the niqab as a "flag" of liberty and freedom.

The House of Commons leader Jack Straw has been widely criticized - and commended - for proclaiming the veil worn by some Muslim women a hindrance to full assimilation into society.

As an American Muslim woman, I see this as an extremely ignorant statement. I am a Caucasian Muslim raised in America, and I am about as "American as apple pie."

In accordance with my religious beliefs, I cover my hair, but does that make me any less American? Would Straw ask me to assimilate into my own country?

Granted, Straw's comment was in reference to the veil that covers the face and not the hair, but we have to be careful when speaking about taking away people's rights. When one right is taken away, where does it stop? If covering the face is taken away for the sake of "assimilation," will covering the hair be next?

I think I speak for all Muslim women when I say that I appreciate the fact that Prime Minister Tony Blair said that covering is a matter of choice for women. This should remain a choice that every woman has the right to make for herself, whether she originates from a Western, Middle Eastern or Asian country.

If the goal really is assimilation, then what better way for an immigrant to assimilate into a Western nation than to embrace its laws of freedom of religion? Many immigrants come to the West fleeing religious persecution in their own countries.

Women in the United States and the United Kingdom have the right to dress the way that best suits their identities. We should be proud of the fact that women do not have to endure religious persecution here, and hold this triumph up high for the world to see and take as its example.

By exercising their religious right to cover as they please, Muslim women in the West are brandishing their flag of liberty. This is the pride of America - freedom.

"I'm late, I'm late for a very important date..."

This story just cracked me up. Yeah, lady, all those speeding tickets are just so much garbage. Throw them away; don't worry, be happy. :) And, uh, make sure you don't smash into any cars as your roar back and forth on the freeway! From the August 11 Arizona Republic:

A woman who was caught 69 times by Scottsdale speed cameras since March told detectives she threw the tickets away because she didn't think anything could happen to her. Now, she faces jail and $11,000 in fines.

Five of the citations issued to Francesca Cisneros, 32, of Chandler, were criminal speeding violations. She also was caught once by a red-light camera, and she faces two counts of driving on a suspended license.

Cisneros told officers she speeds because she often is late for meetings, Scottsdale police Sgt. Mark Clark said.

All but five of her 69 speeding tickets were on Loop 101; her top speed was 86 mph. The unpaid tickets are a Scottsdale record.

Muslim Reactions Misinterpreted

A couple of good letters to the editor, both published in the Arizona Republic:


Muslim reactions misinterpreted (17 February 2006)

It sickens me that people are comparing the reaction of outrage by the Islamic community at the satirical depiction of the Prophet Mohammed to the lack thereof at the beheadings of Caucasians by Islamic extremists.

Apparently it has never occurred to these people that the vast majority of Muslims strongly decry the actions of the terrorists who profess to act in the name of Allah. People weren't rioting in the streets at the execution of kidnapped tourists because they don't consider - and correctly so - the terrorists to even be of the same religion as themselves.

On the other hand, the prohibitions on depictions of Mohammed in any medium is part of the core of Islamic doctrine, so it is equally absurd to make any comparisons, for example, to the lack of a violent reaction by the Christian community to blasphemous depictions of Christ.

Also, in addition to the depictions that incited the rioting, I wouldn't be surprised if the Islamic community were strongly offended by the seeming inability of us Westerners to distinguish between the true, pacifist believers in Islam and the raving lunatics who have been made into a racist generalization by the majority of us over recent years.
- Jesse Hannah, Tucson (The writer is 16.)


Seeing reality of Islamic protest (20 February 2006)

The letter by 16-year-old Jesse Hannah is a balanced perspective of Muslim response to the degrading caricatures of their prophet by Danish cartoonists ("Muslim reactions misinterpreted," Letters, Friday)

As such, it stands in contrast to the steady stream of syndicated columns that evidence their composers' basic inability - or unwillingness - to see the issue from the Muslim side (See Kathleen Parker column, "Re: Free speech - see A. Gore," Opinions, Friday).

I am not a Muslim nor particularly pro-Islam but, like Hannah, I have allotted enough effort to the subject to avoid the misconceptions, inherently biased or not, perpetrated by so many pundits.
- A. Wayne Senzee, Phoenix

"Follow the White Rabbit" (or "Why I Took the Red Pill")

There's an article in the Arizona Republic today about Arizona State University's Memorial Union celebrating its 50th anniversary. Toward the end of the article is an amusing comment by Grady Gammage, Jr., who is the son of Grady Gammage (duh! ;) ), the President of ASU during the 1950s.

"I cannot tell you that I remember the day of the dedication because I was 3," Gammage said. "But I remember a lot about the Memorial Union early in its life."

Gammage, too, believes the union is more than a building; it is a monument to the collective memories of the campus. He recalled a year when the theme was "Alice in Wonderland."

"All of my friends and I got to dress up as the White Rabbit," Gammage said. "We wore these bunny suits with floppy ears. We were chased by coeds dressed as Alice. When you're in fourth grade, this was hot stuff."

Arizona State University: Truth, Knowledge, A Great Tan!

There was an interesting set of articles in the Arizona Republic the other day about my alma mater, Arizona State University. In one article, it seems that ASU will be listed in the May edition of Playboy magazine for being one of the top ten party schools in the U.S. But the University's President, Michael Crow, isn't terribly happy.

"In ASU's case, the party-school ranking is 'a gross simplification that doesn't have anything to do with who we are and what we are,' Crow says.

"Crow has made an enormous effort to ratchet up the academics. He hired Ed Prescott, who then won the 2004 Nobel Prize in economic sciences. He helped recruit 162 National Merit Scholars to attend ASU last fall. He envisions a 'New American University' that will offer quality education to many and foster economic growth.

"Now comes Playboy's list.

"'How do they really know?' Crow asks. 'How do they really assess that? ASU is a very serious school with very serious students. It's also a place where people have a great time and is a great place to be.'

"The party-school image stems partly from some of ASU's inherent qualities. It's huge, with about 52,000 students on the Tempe campus alone. It's sunny and warm throughout the school year.

"In the Princeton Review, some ASU students describe the school like this:

"It's a place where 'almost everyone is beautiful: tall, blond, skinny, and bronzed. . . . Everyone works out and takes care of their bodies, but at the same time (they know) how to have a good time.' As one student puts it: 'It is rare to find an academically oriented soul on campus.'"

Thus sayeth the Greek freshman from out-of-state who's discovering how to "party" by getting drunk and stoned from his or her similarly-intoxicated Greek brothers/sisters. What a goof!


"Playboy spokeswoman Theresa Hennessey says the 2006 list is different from Playboy's last one in 2002, when ASU was No. 1, or the previous one in 1987, when the Sun Devils were 13th.

"'Others were pollings of students and readers,' she said. 'This time, it was just some editors who thought of some great party schools.'"

In other words, why waste all that money on asking people what they think? We'll just make it up as we go along. A small comfort to Dr. Crow, I imagine.

Of course, party rankings really don't mean all that much:

"'When students are hunting for a university, it's not a significant issue to students if it's on a party list,' Mark Nickel, spokesman for Brown University (33rd on Playboy's 1987 listing of party schools), said.

"But there's another concern about such ratings. John Lucas, a spokesman for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, blames the publications and Web sites for glorifying the party culture.

"'It causes a problem on campus,' Lucas says of Wisconsin's being ranked in the top 10 on some lists. 'It becomes self-fulfilling. Students say, "We need to follow those rankings. We have to drink more, not just three or four, but seven or eight, instead."

University of Wisconsin police have taken 44 students to the emergency room this fall because they were so drunk, Lucas says. That compares with 25 last fall."


On the other hand, the other article in the Arizona Republic backed up some of Dr. Crow's assertion about how Arizona State is becoming a top-notch university:

"Arizona State University is the country's fourth-highest producer of Fulbright scholars among public universities for the current school year.

"And while ASU ranks 13th nationally with 14 students participating in the country's largest international exchange program, the school's acceptance rate - nearly 40 percent - was higher than all Ivy League institutions.

"'It really does send a signal to the country that we are a very serious research university. It shows we have a wonderful faculty and students that are doing interesting things and I think that's important,' said Janet Burke, associate dean for national scholarship advisement and internships at the ASU Barrett Honors College."


Returning to the original article, Labels frustrate ASU, UA: Tempe fights party reputation; Tucson says it's not Dullsville, the Republic concluded by writing:

"For all the ballyhoo about which school is more about partying than academics, a closer examination of ASU and UA [the University of Arizona] finds they look a lot alike.

"For the 2004-05 freshman class, UA accepted 83 percent of applicants, while ASU accepted 86 percent. The average UA freshman's high school GPA was 3.4; ASU's was 3.3. The average SAT scores of the schools differed by only 10 points.

"Guess they'll have to sort out their real differences later tonight on the football field."

Which, of course, ASU won, 23-20. :)

Tolerance

Tolerance
Karina Bland, Arizona Republic
May. 22, 2005


At 15, Mae Innabi learned a harsh lesson in tolerance when a boy at school called her a "terrorist" and put her head through a window.

Innabi, a Phoenix resident, is Arab-American, born in the United States and the oldest of three children of immigrants from Jordan.

Now 17, she graduates Monday from Thunderbird High School in Phoenix a year early. She hurried through high school by going to summer and night school and taking math, English, world politics and Arabic at nearby community colleges.

The lessons she learned in tolerance were tougher, brought into her life by the horror of Sept. 11, 2001. Then an eighth-grader, Innabi would tell people she was Hispanic or Italian. She has been cursed and spit on by people who knew she was Arab-American.

In November, Innabi was taking a night class at Cortez High School in Phoenix. Some kids gave her a hard time, calling her a "terrorist." One night, a boy choked her and then pushed her into the window, her head shattering the glass. She suffered a minor concussion: "I'm pretty hardheaded."

Her mother wouldn't let her go back to that class, so Innabi finished her course work in the office. But she refused to run away.

At Thunderbird High last year, she started an anti-discrimination group called the Change, based on Mohandas K. Gandhi's words: "Be the change you want to see in the world."

She and 30 other students raised money to buy lesson plans about different cultures.

Innabi became a beacon for students who felt discrimination: "I think it was easier to come to me because I was their age." She would stand by them while they reported what happened.

Now, Innabi is working to create a Phoenix chapter of the national Anti-Arab-American Discrimination Committee. She has plans for a program to send Arab-American teenagers into schools to talk about their culture.

What Innabi didn't do was learn to hate the people who tormented her: "If I retaliate against them, it's just more reason for people to hate me."

Innabi will attend Arizona State University West this fall.